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How To Supplement Election Coverage?
An anonymous reader asks "What information sources and social networking sites will you be using to supplement the election coverage on TV next Tuesday? I am ready with a big HDTV with Comcast, a Mac mini, and and an Xbox 360. I also have two laptops (one good for websites and one for streaming video), an old-school Blackberry, a 'regular' cell phone, a Nokia N810, a Squeezebox, and finally Sirius Satellite Radio. Which websites should I watch for live county results? I already know about the Twitter Vote Report for tracking and reporting voting issues and I already watch 'CNN Reporters' on Friendfeed for the national flair. What other Twitter accounts should I follow? Which urgent ones should I send to my phones? Which YouTube accounts or keywords I should subscribe to in Miro? What are the most popular sites for posting 'on-scene' videos — iReport, Flickr, something else? I know most local Fox affiliates are great about streaming, but is there a page that lists all of the streams, in case I need to quickly focus on one city or area? Basically, how would you configure all those gadgets?" This reader might find some guidance in what to focus on from a video produced by reader (and data modeler) Bruce Nash that lays out a predicted timeline for when the media will call each state, depending on when the polls close and how tight each race is expected to be.
How covered do you really have to be?
"What information sources and social networking sites will you be using to supplement the election coverage on TV next Tuesday? I am ready with a big HDTV with Comcast, a Mac mini, and and an Xbox 360. I also have two laptops (one good for websites and one for streaming video), an old-school Blackberry, a 'regular' cell phone, a Nokia N810, a Squeezebox, and finally Sirius Satellite Radio. Which websites should I watch for live county results? I already know about the Twitter Vote Report for tracking and reporting voting issues and I already watch 'CNN Reporters' on Friendfeed for the national flair. What other Twitter accounts should I follow? Which urgent ones should I send to my phones? Which YouTube accounts or keywords I should subscribe to in Miro? What are the most popular sites for posting 'on-scene' videos â" iReport, Flickr, something else? I know most local Fox affiliates are great about streaming, but is there a page that lists all of the streams, in case I need to quickly focus on one city or area? Basically, how would you configure all those gadgets?"
I voted a couple of weeks ago, so plan on biking to work as usual, working then coming home, eating dinner with my wife, watching a few minutes of election coverage, then am going to bed. When I wake up on Wednesday morning, my fervent hopes are that this election is a blowout and will not have to be decided again by the courts.
Visit Jonesblog and say hello.
Relax. It's not the end of the world. Unless Obama wins. :D
More seriously, I don't plan on watching anything.
"What other Twitter accounts should I follow?" Lol.... You actually want to hear what twitter has to say?
I sent 7 slingboxes to friends who live in battle states - that way I can watch the local news live. I set my 42" computer monitor up so that I can watch 9 different video feeds at once.
A fifth of whatever hard stuff you prefer.
... Is to go about my life, and check the web the next morning to see the results of all the issues I care about. I think treating the whole thing as a giant spectator sport is part of what creates the whole us-vs-them mentality that makes politics so divisive in this country.
If you're just *itching* to know the results, though, why not set up a program to scrape results from CNN, and email your phone when they get called? Everything else on the news in between is just useless prattle.
You seem to think the more screens you watch the election results on, the better informed you will be. Actually, if you shut down all your electronic gadgets and read a good book (The Prince or Primary Colors spring to mind) you will wake up the next morning a better educated and wiser person. And whoever wins will still have won.
Toby Poynder
London, UK
I'm going to be a poll worker in Florida during this election and although I'm not supposed to have any media within the polls, I'm looking for a service that will provide text message (SMS) updates as the state returns come in.
I've been Googling but found nothing as of yet.
I plan to spend Tuesday evening going from one "victory party" to another in Sarasota and Manatee Counties (Florida) with my Canon XH-A1 video camera, then to send all my videos to Channel 10 (local CBS outlet), then post them @ my own site, http://roblimo.com./
You can do the same thing yourself, even if you don't have a hook-up with a local TV station or pro-quality video gear. Grab your cell phone with built-in vidcam, your Flip Video cam, your 1-CCD camcorder -- whatever you have -- and upload your videos to YouTube or other video sites.
You might also want to do your own exit polls. As long as you're on public property, no one has the right to keep you from shooting video.
Nowadays there is no reason to be a passive video consumer instead of a media creator.
Get out there and BE the media instead of sitting on your ass watching people who are no smarter than you TELL YOU what's going on.
- Robin
...but with a hundred different feeds. I guess you can always Tivo certain TV stations so you can watch replays of McCain fumbles later.
I am ready with a big HDTV with Comcast, a Mac mini, and and an Xbox 360. I also have two laptops (one good for websites and one for streaming video), an old-school Blackberry, a 'regular' cell phone, a Nokia N810, a Squeezebox, and finally Sirius Satellite Radio. Which websites should I watch for live county results?
And why, exactly, do you want all this information overload?
You ask a question, but you omit the most important piece of information: Goal or purpose.
The election results and any interesting details will be plastered all over the media. It'll be hard to miss anything important. So why go to any effort at all to increase information input? What are you processing the info for?
Not that I don't agree the election result is important. It absolutely is. But "more information" does not equal better information.
Assorted stuff I do sometimes: Lemuria.org
...you wouldn't need to check the results!
Yes, get out of the house. How about going to a party, or hosting one? Instead of sitiing on your duff, you can drink, discuss, and celebrate/commiserate as the results come in. Much more interesting than trying to consume a dozen newsfeeds at the same time, whatever good that might do.
Get a DVB-S dish and receiver to get live, raw feeds from sources as they happen. You can have one source per campaign hq or for live field reports. Some of these things don't make it to air
With all that data you are going to over load your brain and freak out. You will require valium or xanax to deal with the constant swings in exit polls and the declarations of who won what states.
Get some beer or a bottle of your favorite poison a few good war movies and contemplate how you will defend off the crazies from your opposing party, should they win.
Or just pawn all those fancy electorics, get some hookers and blow from the seedy part of town and party like the world is ending.
After all, it really is all gonna end one day.
"I am ready with a big HDTV"
I dunno about you all but I am PSYCHED about seeing EVERY PORE on John McCain's face during his concession speech. I mean, election coverage without picture-perfect high definition quality is just not acceptable.
Since my site is now thoroughly slashdotted (thanks everyone!), you might want to check out the video at blip.tv: http://brucenash.blip.tv/#1425102 Bruce
What is it you're trying to see: the outcome of the elections, or the action (or lack thereof)?
I completely agree. Sitting there glued to your TV on election night, watching as each vote gets counted, is hardly a productive use of your time. Cast your vote, go to sleep, and see the aftermath when you wake up the next day. Really, this election will not be decided Tuesday night, it will be very close and involve a lot of lawyers; in fact, both parties have already hired lawyers in Ohio, ready to contest what is likely to be an extremely close race.
Palm trees and 8
My plan is to watch the Daily Show/Colbert Report live hour-long special, then either watch CNN or turn off the TV and just wait for results in the morning, as I wish most news outlets would do.
I will be browsing various sites through all this, but only a few of them will have ongoing political discussions, then there's Slashdot.
It sounds like you're setting yourself up for information overload. Dear heavens, why?
How about "How do I get the fuck away from Election Coverage?" I can't believe how the media is buying into the historically-bankrupt notion that this is the "most important election ever". No, wait, WTF was I thinking, the media will say anything that sounds cool.
Strange things are afoot at the Circle-K.
DIRECTV Customers Count On Mix Channel For Election Night Coverage
http://www.directv.com/DTVAPP/global/contentPageNR.jsp?assetId=3640094
... take the gf out to dinner, then go see a movie, then pick up some dessert on the way back. I figure whoever was elected on Tuesday will still be the President-elect on Wednesday, and the crowds should be smaller than usual to boot.
Maybe four extra pairs of hands and six extra pairs of eyes?
For some reason I am REALLY engergised by these US elections. I am UK resident and full time worker.
I'd like to listen to as much as I can without compromising too much of my work week
Which UK radio can I listen to at which times are going to keep me informed? And what UK time can I expect to keep my eyes opened for key results?
This article is the 4th in 5 days that has been posted purely as viral marketing for twitter. The jerks that own that site must be running out of cash (hopefully). Editors, please STOP the twitter slashvertisments.
If they steal a third one, I can watch them unfold the story line.
Otherwise, I can undoubtedly watch the most volatile melange of Freudian neurotic mechanisms seen in one place since Hilter's last days in the bunker.
Seriously. I live abroad and for the last year it has annoyed me GREATLY that every week there was at least one topic about the US election. And it has been progressively getting worse. I feel sorry for people in the US for probably having to suffer through this hell times ten because the coverage is total overkill. Just hold the elections. Tomorrow for all I care and then STOP with the coverage. I have had enough of Joe the Plumber and Sarah "you betcha" Palin and Obama's cousin twice-removed. Just stop. Show us the other things that are happening in the world please, like an indepth topic about the situation in Congo.
But it's heresy that I want to talk about a big conflict in a large country where thousands of people are dead and even more are on the run. Let's switch over to Obama's mailman from 3 decades ago, because we all know that there is no thing that is more important than trivial matters in an election.
Get it over with and shut up.
This message not brought by the Obama campaign nor the McCain campaign.
Knowledge is power. Knowledge shared is power lost.
I've already voted (absentee) since I will be out of the area.
I'm going media free election day. No internet, no television, no radio. Is my being glued the tv/web going to change anything except my stress level?
Wednesday, I will know.
Gone!
Is the SCOTUS web site
US elections are no longer about who gets elected, the companies that run this country really don't care. If they truly disapproved of a candidate then that candidate wouldn't have a chance (see: every third party candidate). They've turned the whole thing into a big game show and all they care about are the ad views.
Either do something fun or productive, or if you have the resources DoS some corporate news servers. And whatever you do, don't get addicted to their product.
For anyone who doesn't want to sit through the entire (long) Flash presentation by Bruce Nash, here's a micro-summary. Basically, he predicts that it will be around 8 pm Pacific time that they call Virginia and Pennsylvania for Obama, at which point it will be clear that Obama has won.
Find free books.
Who has time, I get to spend 12 hours outside in the Florida sun being a poll watcher.
With a setup like that, you just need the blue pill. Just the suppliment you appear to need.
jsut athnoer menagiensls ltitle psrhae for you to dcoede. Why do we wtsae our tmie dnoig tihs?
Bestbuy has a pretty good deal on an LCD HDTV for under $300. Might want to get one for the bathroom incase you have to 'poop' as they're about to announce the winner. Just sayin'...
http://www.bestbuy.com/site/olspage.jsp?skuId=8987475&type=product&id=1218006548849
.
Dude, you made me drop the blunt in my crotch!
*puts out fire in pants*
Ahhhh!, Oh yeah....You insensitive clod!
You'll never be able to keep up. Just wget the Internet on Nov 4. I'll be too busy to myself, so if it wouldn't be too much trouble to email a copy in a zip file, that would be great.
The twitter advertisements aren't so bad as the more prevalent "blog" advertisements. Nearly every /. article mentions some blog or another. The jerks that own blogs must be running out of cash (hopefully).
"The right to do something does not mean doing it is right." William Safire
http://xkcd.com/intrade/
or
http://norvig.com/election-dashboard.html
If you're checking these more than once an hour then maybe you need to take a breather...
"This reader might find some guidance in what to focus on, when, in a video produced by reader (and data modeler) Bruce Nash that lays out a predicted timeline for when the media will call each state, depending on when the polls close and how tight each race is expected to be. "
Kdawson your english teacher is spinning in his or her grave.
That paragraph sized sentence is a crime against humanity.
Speaking of viral marketing, if you haven't seen the Obama Llama Song it's too funny not to.
On the Something Awful forum contains all the news I or anyone else should ever need.
you can do a search on Tweet Scan like this:
http://tweetscan.com/index.php?s=obama+OR+biden+palin+mccain
This reader might find some guidance in what to focus on, when, in a video[...]
Isn't it a bit presumptions to assume that, just because he posts on Slashdot, he's actually a reader?
Property is theft.
What better way to spend election night than to watch with elation as the Fox people have to call state after state for Obama? Grab a beer and tune in to Fox. Maybe every now and then tune in to another organization to see if they've already called states for Obama that Fox is waiting to call because they just can't stand it.
Perhaps you could watch CNN HD on Dish Network. After all, they have "MORE HD FOR LESS MONEY." Clearly this is a win/win! ;-)
If Nalgene water bottles are outlawed, only outlaws will have Nalgene water bottles.
I still want to figure out how to ignore the fracking campaign.
-- Should there be smoke coming out of my CPU?
Miro? Laptops? Blackberry? Xbox? You probably have a bigger electromagnetic footprint than the power lines in my backyard...
Do you really need all that Inspector Gadget weaponry? Why don't you coze up with an old AM radio, a bottle of gin and a beat-up deck of cards which has the perfect texture to play Solitaire in a dimly lighted living room? And a simple sheet where you strike or circle states as they are being called officially?
Do you really see any value in being the first to send a twitter to your pals about such or such result, while everybody on Earth and beyond will be completely aware of the information in a matter of minutes or hours? There is no scoop on election night, only an annoying chase to be first to know.
You want a real scoop? Here is one: while Obama is way up in polls, McCain will be the next president. Because the people that were supposed to vote for Obama were too busy subscribing to RSS feeds and setting up gamma on their webcam so they would be ready to upload their comments on youtube, and they neglected to go on and vote. While the good ol' God fearing folks were first in line at the booth and spent the election night sipping gin and playing Solitaire. That's exactly how Le Pen got so far in the French elections a few years back - not enough people casting their vote because the polls were on their side.
There is just too much gadgets people. Time to pull a few plugs and get in touch with reality, where elections are won by people who get the most votes, not people who get the most Digg or website hits.
lucm, indeed.
Thanks for the reading suggestions, I will have to check them out.
Here in my home state(Oklahoma, USA), third party/independents have to get a minimum number of signatures on a petition (IIRC 50,000) to be included on the ballot-write-ins not allowed, as they are marked invalid*, or not counted*.
This presidential election, we (in Oklahoma) only have two choices for casting votes for the President...Republican(McCain/Palin) vs. Democrat(Barrack/Biden), or choose not to vote.
IMHO, that sucks. My personal choices this election is to either vote for the lesser of two evils, or abstain from voting on the presidential race. I would much rather have a third option of writing in a 'valid'** candidate to vote for. I guess I need to work on getting this changed....
*Only for that 'line item' of the ballot, not the whole ballot.
**Excluding such nonsense as: Mickey Mouse, Richard M. Nixon, George Washington, etc., but actual 'real' people.(I also understand why it is this way- it does reduce the 'noise in the signal', so to speak, but there should be/needs to be a middle ground here).
Sorry about the awkwardly worded sentence above!
Yes, the 'lesser of two evils' phrase used above does imply my political bias in this election, but I still think my rant/opinion may be valid overall.
Sorry if this sounds pedantic, I just wanted to be clear.
Down With Slashdot BETA!!! I've been around the corner and seen the oliphant; you can only abuse me from your perspecti
Umm, seriously? How exactly is that going to help you find election results?
Let me tell you how the campaigns do it.
They watch TV.
That's it. You pick a channel (or two) and you go with it. If you care about state and local elections, then pick a broadcast network, since CNN isn't going to cover San Francisco's Proposition R. You want some fine grain coverage, or fine grain coverage outside of your media market? Secretary of State websites.
Youre done.
Twitter? HA! And double HA! Those losers watch TV. Twitter doesn't break a damn thing.
done... Obama won, er wins.
The only thing that affects the outcome is you voting, there is no reason to be watching vote by vote results as they come in one a second by second basis. Nobody cares that you are watching besides the TV sponsors, the same outcome will happen regardless of how much attention you give to it.
If you want to know all the data concerning what areas voted for what, it will all be available to you after the election is over, and it will be complete and useful information should you care to access it unlike incomplete live results.
...and I am taking a day's leave just to follow everything ! I love these elections, really exciting.
Yes, I am serious.
*News for Nerds-Stuff that matters*
(no sarcasm intended!)
Novel Concept(tm)! Good idea!
I may be slow catching on, but to me, that is a cool idea, and a constructive reply to the article poster!
Well done, sir! (stuff like this keeps me on /. after I think it may have 'jumped the shark'. Re-birth of 'faith in a failed humanity' delusion on my part, I suspect.)
However....
Keep in mind that gclef (96311) has a very informative and VERY valid reply that needs to be taken into account.(needs modded up to the top)
I shall take both pieces of advice this election, and at least be entertained and engaged!
Down With Slashdot BETA!!! I've been around the corner and seen the oliphant; you can only abuse me from your perspecti
I'm going to get up on Wednesday and listen to the news on the local morning show.. and since we can't have an election without weeks in court I'm sure I'll find out nothing. Then I'll proceed to not care about the 5000 hours of "media" coverage while they do that. Then finally by thanksgiving hopefully we'll actually know who won.
1. Drink tequila until I pass out after voting all my ACORN ballots.
2. Check the paper to see results in the morning while nursing a hangover.
3. Take money from shorting Lehman Brothers and buy unregistered handguns.
4. In six weeks hear on NPR that the last vote count has been validated by the courts.
5. Wait for civil unrest and start selling handguns.
5. Profit
...as long as I don't have to hear the words "It's George Bush's fault" ever again.
Hi, I agree that America should be punished and its wealth distributed to the poor around the globe.
From: http://www.discoverthenetworks.org/individualProfile.asp?indid=2336
Obama supports an initiative known as the Global Poverty Act (GPA), which, if signed into law, would compel the U.S. to develop âoeand implementâ a policy to âoecut extreme global poverty in half by 2015 through aid, trade, debt relief,â and other means. Says Obama:
âoeWith billions of people living on just dollars a day around the world, global poverty remains one of the greatest challenges and tragedies the international community faces,â Obama says. âoeIt must be a priority of American foreign policy to commit to eliminating extreme poverty and ensuring every child has food, shelter, and clean drinking water. As we strive to rebuildAmericaâ(TM)s standing in the world, this important bill will demonstrate our promise and commitment to those in the developing worldâ¦. Our commitment to the global economy must extend beyond trade agreements that are more about increasing profits than about helping workers and small farmers everywhere.â
According to a report by Accuracy in Media editor Cliff Kincaid, the adoption of the GPA could âoeresult in the imposition of a global tax on the United Statesâ and would make levels âoeof U.S. foreign aid spending subservient to the dictates of the United Nations.â Kincaid states that the legislation would earmark some 0.7 percent of the U.S. gross national product to foreign aid, which over a 13-year period would amount to roughly $845 billion âoeover and above what the U.S. already spends.â
The Obama campaign will almost certainly send out text message updates with election results from their point of view. Details (and other text commands) are at http://www.barackobama.com/mobile. If you want lots of updates text FOLLOW BARACKOBAMA to 40404 or use Twitter. (I can't find anything similar from the McCain campaign.) Or better yet you can get a life and volunteer now through Election Day (and even a little beyond) for your preferred candidate running at any level. It's far more enjoyable and interesting than sitting next to a bunch of buzzing electronics.
Keep one window open to fivethirtyeight.com; one window for The Huffington Post, and one for Swampland. :)
For TV, I'd go with MSNBC (Chuck Todd ftw), CNN and Fox, just to watch and see if their heads asplode
"For every right, an equal responsibility..."
Hahaha. Election.
Stupid gringos.
Hints:
Once the live coverage starts, look for clues from the "pundits", especially a change in attitude while the polls are open. The newsrooms have access to the incoming exit polls, but they do not share that with the audience while the polls are still open. That's how they can call a state immediately after the polls have closed - they had the info long before but withheld it.
But, the pundits want to look good, so their "predictions" before the polls close will be strongly biased by the incoming exit poll information. That said, exit polls have been wildly inaccurate in the past two national elections and in some of the primaries this year.
Also look at the mood of insiders that have access to the internal polling, such as Karl Rove. They will still be spinning, but they are unlikely to say anything that is directly contradictory to the polling data.
When the race narrows down to a few states, find the web site for the state that posts the raw data. You'll get the counts there minutes before it's updated on the news networks.
Then check in often on new sites like Drudge Report. Drudge as a policy ignores news embargoes, so you can often read a breaking story there first. Forget about the blog sites for fresh information, but they will be the nursery for the conspiracy theories to be launched by the losing side. This year, there's plenty to go around.
Let the National Guard handle those... if they happen. *
Besides, why not just do it in 3D for really good realism? **
* Please let no riots happen!
** 3D is really cool
(Disclaimer: I like 3D so much, I built a camera.)
Fire up your favorite porno and fire one off, seems appropriate for an instance where we will get screwed either way.
http://www.democracynow.org/pages/election2008
Democracy Now! will be doing a special five-hour broadcast on November 4th from 07:00PM - 12:00AM ET to bring you the 2008 election results as they come in.
The program will include live coverage of the results as the polls close, on-the-ground reports from across the country, reactions from across the globe, and running in-depth analysis and commentary from a wide range of guests you won't get anywhere else.
On November 5th, the morning after, Democracy Now! expands to a two-hour broadcast from 08:00AM - 10:00AM ET to provide complete coverage of the election outcome.
Please contact your local radio or TV station for local listings. There will also be a live video and audio stream of the show on our homepage at democracynow.org.
Prisencolinensinainciusol. Ol Rait!
When you're working as a poll worker, you don't get to have any external election materials present. This means no news, of any kind, until after the polls close.
What, what? You're not working as a poll worker? I thought you said you cared about the election, my bad.
there is no such thing as a dumb question, hadn't read this one.
Punch '08! Don't vote Judy, she'll let terrorist criminal communists attack your babies, and will further destroy the economy! She even OPPOSES scub!
Commodore64_love: I don't comprehend people who're so frightened of death that they'll bankrupt themselves to stay alive
No matter how the election turns out, you need a life. Washington D.C. is certainly NOT the center of the universe. A couple of feeds on your iGoogle page is all anyone should need...... Go to bed early, so that the day AFTER voting closes, you can get up early with a fresh mind to see how things stand.
"Windows is like the faint smell of piss in a subway: it's there, and there's nothing you can do about it." - Charlie Br
Ignore the posts telling you to 'get a life' etc ...
Why not hook up all the gadgets? It's once every 4 years. If you like politics this is the world cup, only people will really live and die because of the outcome. Info overload can be fun.
I'll have PBS on in the background while I get some work done. Unless there's gunfire in Ohio in which case I'll rush out to buy emergency supplies (read: bottle of Jameson)
Physics is like sex: sure, it may give some practical results, but that's not why we do it.
I'll admit I'm a bleeding heart liberal political junkie.
on TV I'll be mostly MSNBC & PBS along with Daily Show/Colbert Report, CNN, and Current ( Al Gore's news channel )
on the net:
try DIGG's US Elections 2008 tabs both popular and upcoming.
pollster.com - http://www.pollster.com/ - is a good aggregater of polls it's what the TV guys use
Hufington post updates/changes frequently and has lots of videos http://www.huffingtonpost.com/
a news tab on igoogle with lots of feeds is good to have in another of your firefox tabs ( BBC, newspapers, TV channel websites, tec. )
I like Salon http://www.salon.com/?source=refresh ( I have a long time premium account ) - it updates a lot, but not as fast as huffington
This is a major, important election, I'll be watching on the HD big screen with friends. laptop atop my lap. I'll probably redo my "favotires" settings for the night.
I strongly urge you to get out more. Meet people. Get a date.
Then you have selective memory. I'm not blaming you, per se, nor am I saying that this is a right-wing phenomenon. People seem to have an inability to see their own faults, or those of those in their group, compared to faults of those who are less like them. To see right-wingers who consider themselves the only REAL patriots, the only REAL Christians, and the only REAL Republicans accuse others of smugness and hubris always serves to raise my eyebrows a bit. I see this stuff every single day, and I'm not all that leftish. If you don't think that Coulter and Limbaugh count as smug, you might want to have your meter re-calibrated.
The problem is, in any population of any size, you're going to have idiots, jerks, charlatans, attention whores, etc. This applies to all factions, groups, subcultures, religions, political groups, everything. Human frailty and evil runs pretty evenly across the gamut. But we have a tendency to take these normal outliers to be the norm when it comes to groups to which we don't belong, while we're blind to the same types of individuals in our own group. It's a pretty sad phenomenon.
- Go to http://videothevote.org/resources and get the .pdf or .html version of the "Guidelines for Election Day Conduct" text.
- Print it out like you would a poster-flyer on a single sheet of paper, with "Video the Vote" clearly visible.
- Then take the sections 3 (Get Permission before You Film) and 8 (Enter Polls with Authorization), enlarge them (a photocopy machine and some cutting/pasting tools should do) and stick them right next to the full text.
- Copy the entire set (both texts) on colored paper (you can do the red-white-blue version if you feel like it) and place them at the locations where they are easily noticeable.
- Also, have a printout of the law you mentioned earlier, that regulates filming/photo rules at the poles.
Mit der Dummheit kämpfen Götter selbst vergebens
How about just vote, then forget about it until later in the evening or the following day when the winners are announced. Unless you're working the polling places or on voter turnout initiatives there's nothing you can do but vote to affect the outcome, so why obsess about it?
Is there any kind of minimalist election result feed which will inform of only the states as they're officially called and the final result? For example twitter or IM.
I don't want to spend hours watching it on TV, but I do want to know the results as they're called.
And then blow up parliament.
Life sucks, but death doesn't put out at all. -- Thomas J. Kopp
What bias! You forgot to point out that the Libertarians, Greens, and Jesus Christ himself are also traitors who would lead this country down the road to fascism faster than Adolf Hitler on the autobahn.
I can't believe the mods would tolerate such extreme bias on slashdot. I am shocked!
The submitter is in a mentally precarious state. If he is sincerely this interested in a flood of realtime election coverage, then I pity the state he will be in when the election is over. Maybe we should be advising him on how to break his election news addiction. Or lead him to a safe alternative so he can continue to fixate on something else when it's over.
Or, here are two alternative interpretations of his question: 1) He's a reporter for some news outlet and wants to be the second to break any big story. 2) He's a daytrader in Asia and getting the scoop a few minutes early could be worth a lot of money.
What we need are tips to AVOIDING election coverage. This year is going to suck either way. I'm thinking drunken stupor!
Jeez, people! So many negative responses. "Ha! Ha! Get a life and go outside!!" Real constructive, real classy, guys.
The article submitter is clearly passionate about the election, probably has gathered lots of feeds already, and wants to know if anyone has any he/she hasn't thought of. This person has probably been following the election headline by headline for the past several months, and is very excited about it. Way to rain on his/her parade!
Just because you're passionate about something different, or, likely not passionate about anything at all, doesn't give you the right to shit all over someone who is.
Everytime they announce a state in the Obama column, I'm going to jack it. And, of course, I'll be jacking it during his victory speech. He'll probably win 45 or 46 states (2012 will be a 50 state blowout), so that's a lot of masturbating!
Do you even lift?
These aren't the 'roids you're looking for.
> I don't recall the whacky Right being that smug last election when Bush won somewhat comfortably.
Actually, I was on the other side of the fence in 2004 and there was nothing to cheer about. Nobody was happy about Bush, they were just glad he wasn't Kerry. Though damn, I wish I had that vote back. He was elected to fix his own mess, not make more of them.
Anyhow, with Obama, I'm *glad* to vote for him. I've supported him since the primaries. True, I've gone from thinking that McCain would be an okay president to being eager to campaign against McCain in 2010 (I live in AZ), but that's not why I support Obama.
Look, I voted for Bush. Twice. It was a mistake. But I've never once been so eager to see my own party lose. And I want to see them lose in the worst possible way. So yeah. Maybe I'll watch Fox. Because I know the Republican party is out of control and needs to be put out of its misery.
I may be a Republican, but after what they've done to this country, I'm going to be first in line to dance on the Republican party's grave.
I'll be at Grant Park next Tuesday night, so I expect to learn the election results direct from Senator Obama's mouth to my ears (albeit through a series of loudspeakers mounted above the stage, most likely).
The mood of the crowd will be an indicator of how things are going early in the process, with cheers for each state where Democrats are victorious, and sadness whenever a state goes red.
This article is the 4th in 5 days that has been posted purely as viral marketing for twitter.
Would you rather have 4 stories in 5 days posted purely as viral marketing for the other side?
Here in my home state(Oklahoma, USA), third party/independents have to get a minimum number of signatures on a petition (IIRC 50,000) to be included on the ballot-write-ins not allowed, as they are marked invalid*, or not counted*.
It works like this here in the UK, basically anyone* (the form only needs the signature of 10 (ten) eligible voters from your constituency) who can afford the £500 deposit can stand for election to the commons. It's even easier to stand at local elections (IIRC no deposit is needed)
*British Citizens over 18, and not in one of these categories.
If I have nothing to hide, you have no reason to search me
When I wake up on Wednesday morning, my fervent hopes are that this election is a blowout and will not have to be decided again by the courts.
Actually there's worse case, imagine Bob Barr and Ralph Nader getting just a few votes, and Maine splitting, so each major candidate get less than 270. That throws the election into the House of Representatives. Biggest circus since they closed the Colosseum!
Chill. What will you do if you get vote-by-vote coverage of every precinct of every county in every state? Your head will explode. I will probably watch CNN and tune to FOX News every so often, and maybe check a few websites if I get bored, until I get tired and decide to go to bed. Seriously, I am not a CNN fanboy, but they do a pretty good job of reporting (whether or not you think they are biased). The TV networks will be all over this election, so this is one event for which we probably won't have to look too hard to find every bit of information we desire, and more. Three of my four computers and my Palm Treo will basically be resting this time, and I think your electronic goodies will forgive you if you enjoy the suspense from the couch too.
This is a hacked account, for which the owner can not be held responsible.
And watching Olbermann give us television's first on air stroke, when Mccain wins by landslide.
Now that this had a chance to get buried, here are some links I gathered for tomorrow. No new useful Twitter users to follow, and no useful user-submitted video sites (or specific keywords), but a bunch of web sites of varying use. Thanks for the interesting conversation. For all those wondering, it was absolutely not an ad, it was an honest question. I am a long time reader here (id around 52k), but I stayed anon to avoid my many coworkers who know me. Old timers could tell I am an old-timer myself because my question tried to harken back to the days when /. was a good, high quality watering hole. Now the middle schoolers from "back in the day" are in college, and this place has paid the price. Some people rued the day that id 100k was handed out, forget about the 1 millionth. Thank you to the few useful contributors. Thanks for the funny replies. And a big "whatever" to the negatives.
http://www.glennbeck.com/splash.php http://www.supremecourtus.gov/ http://roblimo.com/
http://videothevote.org/resources http://www.indymedia.org/en/index.shtml
http://www.democracynow.org/ http://twittervotereport.com
http://cnnpolitics.com/ http://electoral-vote.com/
http://www.fivethirtyeight.com/ http://www.huffingtonpost.com/
http://swampland.blogs.time.com/ http://www.democracynow.org/pages/election2008
DIGG's US Elections 2008 tabs both popular and upcoming.
http://www.pollster.com/ http://www.buckscountyelections.org/ElectionSummary.aspx?id=5
http://www.bbc.co.uk/radio4/news/pip/52l2g/
http://tweetscan.com/index.php?s=obama+OR+biden+palin+mccain
http://xkcd.com/intrade/ http://norvig.com/election-dashboard.html
Some tv coverage:
http://myfoxla.com http://myfoxphilly.com http://myfoxorlando.com http://www.wesh.com
http://www.barackobama.com/mobile http://www.wtte28.com/ http://www.myfoxstl.com/myfox/